John Swinney is refusing to waive legal rules on documentary evidence in the Holyrood harassment inquiry, setting up a clash with MSPs.
The Deputy First Minister set out the government’s ground rules in last minute letters showing tensions with parliament on the handling of the probe established after the botched inquiry into claims against Alex Salmond.
The judicial review on the Salmond case is a key concern in the inquiry’s work, but the Government will not release legal and court papers.
MSPs will be able to question Scotand’s top civil servant, Leslie Evans, in person on Tuesday when the first evidence session gets under way.
Earlier, the committee clashed about how officials will appear before them after concerns they were trying to take part in panels instead of individually.
Parliament accused government of failing to hand over full information in the inquiry. Submissions contained some censored passages.
In a new letter to the committee, Swinney wrote: “If the Scottish Government were to waive privilege it would undermine this ability on future occasions when ministers and officials choose to seek legal advice and would impact negatively on when and how legal advice is provided.
“This would not be in the interests of good government and the upholding of the rule of law. It is for these reasons that it would be inappropriate to waive legal professional privilege in respect of communications about these judicial review proceedings and the handling of the complaints against the former First Minister.”
But Swinney said individuals will be free to answer fully when they appear before MSPs.
Swinney wrote to the committee as the government published a timeline of the development of its procedure in dealing with harassment complaints.
In another newly published letter, dated August 13, Evans repeated her preference for appearing with other civil servants because she had “little involvement in the drafting of the procedure” on harassment.
Evans will be accompanied by the Scottish Government’s solicitor on Tuesday.
Two years ago, Nicola Sturgeon’s Government investigated claims of sexual misconduct against Salmond when he was First Minister. Salmond pursued a judicial review and was successful when the internal investigation was ruled to be unlawful and biased.
A committee of MSPs was established to examine a debacle that has cost over £500,000 of public money.
